There is great interest in replacing petroleum-based chemicals with bio-derived feedstocks, thereby producing “green” products. Such products may take advantage of renewable resources, as well as decrease manufacturing reliance on petrochemicals. Examples of green products may include inks and adhesives, including, as an example, a soy-protein based formaldehyde-free plywood adhesive. Cost may become a large factor in determining if green compositions may be adopted in industry. It would be useful to develop methods to produce the chemical building blocks for use in step-growth polymers such as polyesters, polyamides, and polyurethanes.
Step-growth polymers can be prepared from monomers having two or more functional groups capable of reacting to form long chains or networks. The physical properties of the polymers may depend on a variety of conditions, including the amount of monomer materials used, the ratio of one monomer species to another monomer species in the preparation of copolymers, and the length of a monomer chain. Among green compositions, dicarboxylic compounds may be useful for preparing such step-growth polymers or copolymers. Dicarboxylic compounds may be obtained directly from biological feedstocks, or they may be synthesized, for example, from monocarboxylic compounds.
It is therefore desirable to develop high-yield methods to prepare dicarboxylic compounds of known and specified chain length to permit increased market penetration of bio-derived step-growth polymers and copolymers.